Evening / Night Service Centres?

This is a discussion on Evening / Night Service Centres? within The Indian Car Scene, part of the BHP India category; The "night service " idea is not a new one. Actually most private line buses (local bus operators) in Kerala ...

The "night service " idea is not a new one. Actually most private line buses (local bus operators) in Kerala are always get serviced at night; the mechanics, "Masthiry" (foreman), "Asan" (Mr.know-it-all guy) all start their work by 10-11pm only. The workshop will usually close by 4-5am and the vehicles will be then handed over to the "kili" (cleaner).

Such workshops will almost always appear deserted and permanently closed during the daytime.

when i was in my college studying MBA i actually had come out with night time car service business idea and had shared my vision with couple of my mates. Well i was mostly laughed at and they said its highly impractical. I never believed them and nor do i now. But it feels good to know that something of this sort has already been implemented and i was not impractical :-)

I have used the 'Night Srvice' option when I had a Maruti and the option existed with the M.A.S.S. where I used to go regularly.
The service was good but limited. Not all stuff could be done as all the facilities were not available during the night.
But this night service lasted for maybe a couple of years only. It is not there anymore with that particular M.A.S.S.

Now this is an awesome idea. How come our business gurus did not come up with this ages ago. I would love to drop my car for service after work and pick it up the next day before office. It saves time, and one need not depend on public transport while the car is being serviced during the day. But its a catch. The service station should be somewhere nearby to the residence! No point driving half way in the opposite direction just to drop the car off and travel all the way back. That is even worse than regular day service!

My office is close to Mandovi motors, JP nagar and they have this night service. I found it very useful. I do evening shifts and it was a pain getting up in the morning and drop the car for service and come back home in an auto.

Now its easy for me to drop the car in the evening and collect it anytime the next day!

Night service is a great idea,if call centers exist then whats wrong with service stations? One good thing is it would generate more employment opportunities in a place where population ouy numbers vacancies. I personally feel that companies like Tata should for sure adopt this idea as maximum no. of times i go to get my beast serviced the service people have great number of cars to cater to, i have tried going even at 9.15 AM but no use.

It's an idea which will come around...once the OEMs & their dealers wake up from their slumber.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Many a times the service cneter has called me midway through the service to get/give some clarifications. (like some unexpected spare replacement that would affect my bill amount considerably) But i wouldn't want anybody disturbing my sleep

All Bangalore-ans know about Cafe Coffee Day on Bangalore - Mysore road or Bangalore Tumkur Road. These are the coffee outlets in between 2 cities along side a highway (60-80 kms from Bangalore) which will be ever full even at 2'o clock in the night crowded with YoYo dudes and zing bang gals. (Literally we have to struggle for parking space and then for the dining space)

Why not cash in this situation and open a service center beside that with some more facilities like swimming pool, snooker, night cricket/football/basketball, projector TV etc etc.... I am sure there will a super long Q for night service as well...

My vote is totally for this brilliant idea. As for not having quality technicians in for the night time , they could say that this is for "standard service" only. which is replace / refill types. anything that needs to be diagnosed and fixed would require day time appointments. Even then it would be a big hit. Despite having weekends off, I hate going then since they are over loaded with work and I have better things to do then spend the day waiting for my ride. Someone needs to mail this thread to the CEOs of all Indian car makers. The poll is a superb indicator of the level of interest garnered.

This concept is quite sensible indeed. I never understood the real-world limitations till I started working last year. And it's impossible with a six day week. Atleast now I work five days a week, but then everything has to be done on Saturdays. And that's not always posible. I'm all for a night servicing facility.

I think it makes a fantastic business and economic sense. I feel Tata motors might be the first to roll out once they find their already overcrowded service centers overwhelmed by the Nanos.

I think even the skeptics might be won over if the choice is between getting an appointment one month away and a night service with free pick and drop.

I usually drop my Swift in the morning en route to work, and I have to say it is a pain, even though the service center is en-route to my workplace. I can imagine plight of folks who have to go out of the way to drop their vehicles.

Drawbacks
- As someone pointed out, would you be OK getting a call in the middle of the night giving/asking for clarifications?
- What about quality manpower? Lets face it, given a choice between day and night shift nobody wants to work in devil's shift. So can the service center assure me of quality job, if all the good guys prefer day shifts.
- What about noise related issues? Service centers situated in middle of industrial zones might be OK, but ones in middle of residential areas might not be able to operate at night. However a quick glance will tell that not many will fall into that category.

None of the obstacles are insurmountable. I still wonder how come our business savvy people have missed this opportunity.

Its a great idea to have night service. Add pick and drop as suggested, it could be an awesome deal.
As to receiving calls in the night, i believe they should go through with the routine servicing and problems diagnosed at the time of delivery to the service center. Other minor things can wait till the morning, when the car owner can decide whether to leave the car for service during daytime or leave it for some other day.